Frustrated with grad admissions

I'm graduating with:

-two bachelors, a minor, and a certificate from a school known to everyone in my state

-experience as a club president of an honor society

-research in my field under my department head

-over a year of volunteering in my field

-a 4.0 GPA

2/3 of the programs I've applied to so far (a masters and a PhD) have rejected me. I'm not given tangible reasons, and I had connections at these universities. I'm not sure what more I'm supposed to give that I haven't already. I know that it's more of a niche specialty (which is why I applied to only three schools. Programs with high cost, bad location, and those not suited to what I wanted weren't applied to), but I'm still frustrated.